Atheist, why go on with life regardless of its turmoils if there is no divine purpose?

If you are atheist, people will say that to you in some way.  They want you to tell them how your life can have a purpose if you don't have a God.  In other words, they are saying that unless your life purpose is BIGGER than you your life is no real value to you.  They are saying that if you say your life has meaning without God that you are lying or you secretly perhaps unknown to yourself do believe in God. 

They won't tell you that many, some of whom who claimed to be believers in God, found meaning in serving their country in war whatever.  That was what gave them meaning not faith.  The meaning is not about morality for you can get it from fighting for your war-mongering rogue nation.  It comes from feeling important to something that is bigger and more powerful and more influential than you.  You find power and influence by being part of what it does.  You are linked to its power and influence.  It has them not you but it cannot have them without people like you.  You are able to connect yourself with and identify with this bigger power.

The danger is that as long as you see something as bigger and more powerful and influential than you, you will get meaning from following it even if it kills innocents. 

Religion encourages you to find meaning in God as the higher power but if that is just because God is bigger than you and not because God is God then it is putting a bad trait in you.  It will lead many to think that following Hitler even to the death is more fulfilling and engaging.

Religion says we need an ultimate or eternal meaning.  But in fact as long as the cause is bigger than us most of us don't care.

The bigger matters so much that clearly we should keep trying to improve ourselves.  Let who you will be tomorrow, that person that is better than the one you are today, be bigger than anything for you.  That is what you really need.  It's not fighting in wars.  It's not Gods. 

Some would say that they don't see why your meaning has to be bigger than you.  They say it's enough if it is as good as you.  Food for thought!  An equal playing field means that this can keep you balanced.  The need for a bigger thing than yourself implies that you get a feeling of safety from keeping on the right side of it.  There is a hidden threat there.  That is what religion is spreading into the community and human race.

The purpose paradox

You want a purpose to live.  You want something to make your life feel important.

If it is something you can find or achieve then after you obtain it it is no longer a purpose.

You achieve it.  Now your life is meaningless and valueless and you may as well be dead.

If you cannot achieve it and never will then trying is only a waste of time.

So whether your purpose can be reached or not your life is a waste.

Perhaps purpose is not a point you get to but is a process?  What if the ongoing process will never be finished and that is your purpose?  That shows that Christian doctrines about a Heaven being the final goal where you are purified of evil and sin is nonsense and cruel nonsense at that.  This is a sense of purpose that will not be very strong.  If you run against a friend once a day just to be a few seconds faster than them it's not very meaningful and exciting.  But it is meaningful.  It is more meaningful if you think you will achieve a major dramatic win.  Yet this meaning is only in your head.  You don't need to do something marvellous for it to be important.

We find that the way religion talks about meaning is immature and deceptive and ignorant.  The atheist already has meaning without God and without religion.  The atheist must not stand for being talked down to.

Just be happy
 
Life is worth living because you can be content. Have simple tastes that are easy to fulfil and keep.
 
Life is worth living because you can find what gives purpose in life by trying new things and shedding old ideas for everybody is different and has different needs and you need to find out what makes you tick.
 
When you can get meaning from deluding yourself that the lies the Church tells you are true that shows that it is in your power alone to give your life meaning. You can do it another way. Hope. Trust in yourself. That is why the view that religion should be encouraged for its fantasies make people happy is unacceptable and stupid.
 
Nietzsche mentioned the asking of, "If time was not linear but cyclic, I would have to do my life over and over again forever. It will not feel like a repeat but it will be. Would I be happy with that?" If I am then I see my life has meaning for me. If we do not notice that we should not be seeking meaning for our lives for we already have it, we will be taken in by religion. We will be fooled.
 
If one looks deep inside, one will feel at least a little love for everybody. Knowing the love is there and feeling it brings better feelings and attracts thoughts of love. If you love, your life will be meaningful and religious theories about the meaning of life will be irrelevant.
 
Why suffer?
 
Christians all believe that suffering should be endured with love and humility when it cannot be avoided. If that is good advice, it does not follow that suffering happens for the sake of giving you an opportunity to humbly love as you live through it. The believer who suffers and who feels no love is praised as long as she or he harbours no malice or vice.
 
Thus for Christians, the teaching of the meaning of life is not about making you happy but making you virtuous. If happiness comes it comes but is not intended for it is not what the enterprise is about.
 
Christians say that people realise their suffering has meaning and value. I think many of them mean that if you are alive and suffering that can be better than being dead.
 
Many "holy" people say suffering should happen and it is good to suffer in itself. That is a twisted doctrine and if you have to condone the evil done to you to feel better and to give it meaning you need psychiatric help. Many do it for they want to say God is right to let terrible things happen.
 
Many teach the following view. It is that: though suffering should not happen, God lets it happen and he is right just like a parent is right to let a child go to the dentist when some suffering is unavoidable. They are saying suffering is evil but there is worse evil without it. How do they know? You can't just say a thing like that - you need solid evidence that the alternative is worse. They are saying that without suffering we would likely end up being spoiled children who don't care about God or each other. This teaches that caring matters for its own sake. That makes no sense. Caring only matters because we are in a world of suffering. Caring matters because we see suffering as something to be opposed. If we were not it wouldn't matter if we don't care. God is using us to get us to care for him. Better a world of spoiled but happy people than a world where innocent babies die. Trying to find a divine purpose for suffering is self-defeating and leads to you refusing to admit that God is wrong if he exists. And it is judgmental of God to let suffering befall us because he thinks it is likely that we will be spoiled without it. He cannot be sure if it is likely enough to justify allowing suffering. The thought that he knows what we would be like just plays into the hands of those who say, "God commanded the murder of pagan babies in the Bible. He did right for he knew they would be murderers themselves if they grew up."
 
If God is what gives your life meaning then surely you crave being with him? Thus your suffering will only be worsened by belief in God. The more you suffer the more you will want him and to be with him.
 
Buddhism holds that craving causes suffering. If you are in great pain and you crave relief that makes the suffering worse. The Buddhist solution is to see all that happens to us be it good or bad as impermanent and unrepeatable. That is what we need not God. Having the wrong answer means we are still left with the problem. God religion is a hindrance.
 
I find the following method of making life bearable and more enjoyable extremely effective. The person you are most interested in is yourself. Therefore if you make the habit of recording your day in detail in a diary and putting in times and the most mundane things you are making sure you will remember the good in that day. You will be able to look back at the bad and good later with fascination. It makes the bad less bad because you know that reading about it and the lessons in it will bring you enjoyment and a sense of confidence for the future. When you experience something bad you can say that in years to come you will still be able to look back on it and want to. You will learn from it. It will console you and make you more determined to live a happier and more fulfilling life. Great suffering can be waiting for you around the corner - all you can do is get through it without making it worse.
 
The Christian says even the atheist can be unselfish. It sees meaning in self-sacrifice.  If so, I can give meaning to my death by consenting to death when it comes so that I may go to make room on earth for another. World over-population cannot go forever. It is said that if you get a reason to let your life go and accept your end then you automatically give meaning to your life.
 
The atheist may see suffering as a part of life that cannot be taken away or avoided completely. This leads to acceptance. It thrives on courage. All people have to simply accept it - faith in God is a separate issue. An atheist can accept it as well as a theist or believer in God. But it takes time and patience and it is a journey.
 
The Crutch
 
If a person feels their lives have no meaning and they need to believe in religion then what? Bringing God in would be trying to make a crutch.
 
The use of religion as a crutch needs to be discouraged. Christianity says that discipleship of Jesus may make your life worse. Jesus said his real friends lift their cross to follow him and that the world will hate them for it hates him. The Christian is to follow Jesus even if he or she feels their life was better and more purposeful without Christian faith. 
 
You cannot ever take away anybody's religious crutch no matter how hard you try. They listen to you and they make the scales fall away from their own eyes. They take off the bandages covering their eyes - if they wanted to keep them on they would plug their ears against you. Yet they may think they do want to stay blind but that is merely ambivalence. They do and they don't.